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Staples names new CEO
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September 5, 2001: 8:55 a.m. ET
Office supply retailer taps president for CEO job; founder will remain chairman
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Office supply retailer Staples Inc. Wednesday promoted Ronald Sargent, its president and chief operating officer, to chief executive effective Feb. 3.
The company's current CEO, Thomas Stemberg, will stay with the company as executive chairman. He founded the company in 1985.
Sargent, who started in retailing as a stock boy at a Kroger supermarket, joined Staples in 1989 as regional vice president of operations.
The Framingham, Mass.-based company said that in preparation for the transition of leadership Stemberg and Sargent met and visited other companies at which the top executives had taken on new roles, including software company Microsoft Corp., where they met with CEO Steve Ballmer and chairman and company co-founder Bill Gates.
Top executives of Staples received criticism from some shareholders earlier this year when the company dropped its plan to spin-off its online retailing unit, Staples.com, and said it would exchange its own shares for shares of the unit's stock at a profit.
In response to criticism, members of the board of directors, including Stemberg and Sargent, exchanged their shares at the original purchase price, but they were still shielded from the decline in price seen by many dot.com investors.
Shares of Staples (SPLS: Research, Estimates) gained 42 cents to $15.47 in trading Tuesday. 
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Staples
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